Ebola Virus Disease News and Research

Latest Ebola Virus Disease News and Research

Biophysical Society Annual Meeting to highlight innovations in medicine, physics, and more

Honeybee silk-inspired materials; a deconstruction of the Ebola virus; how microbes evolve resistance to antibiotics; and a possible connection between Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes are just some of the intriguing topics that will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS).

22 Jan 2013

Experimental vaccine elicits antibodies that can protect against Ebola virus infection

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have found that an experimental vaccine elicits antibodies that can protect nonhuman primates from Ebola virus infection.

16 Jan 2013

Affected countries, communities should conduct global health priority-setting

"Global health is changing -- both in policy and practice," Alanna Shaikh, a development consultant and blogger currently working on a USAID-funded health project, writes in an opinion piece in the Guardian's "Global Development Professionals Network" blog, adding the field is getting "far more attention in the past decade than in the years before," which "also creates challenges."

5 Dec 2012

The Lancet issues special series of articles focused on emerging zoonoses

Today, the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, has issued a special series of articles focused on emerging zoonoses (human diseases that originate in or are shared with animals).

1 Dec 2012

HCV medications' side effects can now be replicated and observed in Petri dishes and test tubes

The adverse side effects of certain hepatitis C medications can now be replicated and observed in Petri dishes and test tubes, thanks to a research team led by Craig Cameron, the Paul Berg Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State University.

17 Nov 2012

Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses must be designated as emerging diagnoses

The Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses are commonly referred to as emerging diseases, but leading scientists say these life-threatening viruses have been around for centuries.

15 Nov 2012

International cooperation essential to help Uganda fight malaria

Uganda "has overcome a violent past, but hope is daily threatened by a force more deadly than any warlord or civil unrest": the mosquito, Ugandan Health Minister Christine Ondoa writes in a GlobalPost opinion piece. According to the WHO, "Uganda has the highest incidence of malaria in the world," and the disease is endemic in more than 95 percent of the country, she notes.

15 Oct 2012

Uganda declares end of Ebola outbreak

"Uganda is now free from Ebola, the Health Ministry said, two months after an outbreak of the deadly virus killed at least 16 people," Reuters reports. "'The Ministry of Health has ... officially declared an end of the Ebola outbreak that broke out in Kibaale district in July.

6 Oct 2012

Bas-Congo virus associated with acute hemorrhagic fever in Africa

An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before.

28 Sep 2012

WHO working with partners to stop Ebola from spreading in DRC

The WHO on Tuesday "said it is continuing to work with authorities from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to stop an Ebola outbreak from spreading, with the number of detected cases having reached 46 in the past week," the U.N. News Centre reports.

20 Sep 2012

Ebola outbreak in DRC responsible for as many as 31 deaths, according to revised count

"An outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever has claimed possibly as many as 31 lives in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo since May, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said Thursday," Agence France-Presse reports.

15 Sep 2012

Ebola outbreak ending in Uganda, continues to affect neighboring DR Congo

"While Ebola continues to kill in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an outbreak of the virus in neighboring Uganda appears to be coming to an end, the World Health Organization said Monday, reporting that no new cases of the deadly virus had been confirmed in Uganda for a month," the Los Angeles Times' "World Now" blog reports.

5 Sep 2012

Bushmeat blamed for Ebola outbreak in DRC

"Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo's north-eastern Orientale Province are urging the population to desist from activities that could put them at risk of contracting the Ebola virus, including contact with infected individuals and the consumption of bushmeat," IRIN reports.

24 Aug 2012

DR Congo reports Ebola outbreak near Uganda border

"Nine people have died in an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Health Minister Felix Kabangue said on Saturday," Agence France-Presse reports.

21 Aug 2012

Researchers identify molecular and protein signatures that predict HCV virus-induced liver injury

Researchers have discovered molecular and protein signatures that predict rapid onset of liver damage in hepatitis C patients following a liver transplant. The markers appeared soon after transplant and well before clinical evidence of liver damage.

17 Aug 2012

Scientists researching Ebola virus say vaccine 'unlikely' due to funding restraints

"Scientists researching the lethal Ebola virus have told [BBC News] that a commercial vaccine to prevent the onset of infection may never be developed," the news service reports.

16 Aug 2012

Antisense therapy shows promise in treating toxoplasmosis

A targeted approach to treating toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease, shows early promise in test-tube and animal studies, where it prevented the parasites from making selected proteins. When tested in newly infected mice, it reduced the number of viable parasites by more than 90 percent, researchers from the University of Chicago Medicine report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

14 Aug 2012

Uganda Ebola virus outbreak under control, WHO says

The Ebola virus outbreak that began last month in Uganda is under control, with health agencies having isolated the 176 people who had even slight contact with people who have contracted the virus, Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda, told reporters.

6 Aug 2012

Australian scientists discover new virus in bats

Australian scientists have discovered a new virus in bats that could help shed light on how Hendra and Nipah viruses cause disease and death in animals and humans. The new virus - named 'Cedar' after the Queensland location where it was discovered - is a close relative of the deadly Hendra and Nipah viruses.

3 Aug 2012

Number of suspected Ebola cases in Uganda rises to 36; Outbreak has killed 14

The number of confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in Uganda has risen to 36, according to a WHO spokesperson, who added the disease remains confined to the rural Kibaale district, NPR's health blog "Shots" reports.

2 Aug 2012